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8 month old frequent waking in night

5 replies

sharond101 · 01/01/2016 21:49

My almost 8 month old daughter is waking several times a night and only settles when I feed her (ebf). I guessed I needed to break the feeding habit and I have paced the floor rocking her and shusshed her, swaddled her to no avail. After around 2.5 hours of screaming she does fall back asleep with comforting but it's so exhausting. She often goes into bed awake so can go to sleep on her own. I am exhausted.

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FATEdestiny · 01/01/2016 22:05

If she can go to sleep alone from being awake, then if she needed to she should be able to do this in the night as well.

Her waking and crying cannot be about not being able to go back to sleep - because she can go back to sleep on her own. So it would suggest something else that is wrong with her.

My DD absolutely hates lying down in a nappy that is anything other than dry. She doesn't mind a wet nappy in the day when up and about. But if she wakes up in the night, her nappy having wee in it would be a cause to not go back to sleep. So I would therefore change her nappy.

Other reasons for her waking could be teething pain. Being poorly. Being hungry - is she eating well during the day and also getting her daytime milk intake? Being thirsty - is she drinking enough during the day or could she be dehydrated?

Does she go to sleep calmlu on her own? My DD would end up with a really disturbed night sleep if she was ever distressed at the time she went to bed.

It could also be over-tiredness if baby isn't getting enough daytime sleep. I'd estimate 2 naps of about 1.5-2h at 8 months old, maybe an additional 3rd nap at teatime.

sharond101 · 01/01/2016 22:12

Thank you FATEdestiny. She takes good feeds during the night and nibbles in the day from me. It's like she has changed night to day milk wise. She naps well. Around 1.5 - 2hours twice daily.

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FATEdestiny · 01/01/2016 22:25

Could you try encouraging more daytime milk feeds?

There's often an issue with regards to feeding between 6m and 9m because of early weaning.

During early weaning babies don't get all that many calories from their solids. Certainly not enough for solid food to replace milk. So it's expected that milk feeds are maintained at the same level as before weaning, sometimes even increasing milk demand if there is a growth spurt.

So food shouldn't be replacing milk, food should be in addition to milk.

There are the practical difficulties of actually having the time in the day to maintain all normal full milk feeds, plus 3 meals a day. I found I was back to the newborn days of spending all of baby's awake time feeding her!

Plus the difficulties of low calorie food (like veg) filling babies tummy but actually providing very little energy in terms of calories that the baby needs.

I generally find that from 9m-12m food starts overtaking milk, gradually. So then life gets easier because milk feeds can be dropped as portion sizes increase and more food groups start getting eaten.

It might be that baby is hungry for milk in the night, so that is the cause of the wake ups. Either just accept this and feed rather than trying other ways to settle. Or try to increase the amount of milk she has in the daytime.

BumWad · 02/01/2016 15:42

My 7 month old DS is the same. FATE your responses to threads on this forum are spot on including this one, so thank you!

(Really think it's the weaning = still hungry baby on our part)

sharond101 · 02/01/2016 16:01

For us this happened slightly before weaning. But she is just nibbling on the boob during the day.

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